"Activation: what is it?" Topic

Marbles? Do you chuck them at the airfix figures?

yes….. :-)

By contrast I look at a 'simulation' as a set of rules or conditions that try to model ancient warfare as closely as our current understanding of the mechanisms involved, allow.

I don't see how a table top game can ever truly approach a simulation. Beyond game mechanics there is simply no way to simulate the life risking consequences of battle. I get to live after the game and that completely changes my experience of it. If there were real life consequences to the outcome of table top game for me then I think it could begin to move towards a simulation. In that scenario the game would begin to impose on the player some of the responsibilities of command.

Activation is a game system which mimics command control. In the old days this was done with orders and reaction testing, but both of these game systems have high game play friction. Activation has much less game play friction and as a result is a common system used in rules today. There are other ways of representing this, such as command radius based command control rules.